7 Webotainers Worth Watching

During their annual “Upfront” sessions this month, TV networks are flinging several dozen new shows against the wall in order to see what sticks to the 2009-2010 prime-time wall. Given corporate media’s 90 percent mortality rate for new comedies and dramas made the old fashioned (expensive) way, webotainment — produced on a shoestring — continues to gain traction.

Question is, does webotainment 2.0 deliver? Is the formerly radical anyone-can-upload net technology resulting in experiments that burst the confines of network television hackery, or are the New Webotainers simply producing shorter versions of lame sitcoms and tired sci-fi clichés?

To be sure, dreck aplenty clogs the New Media pipelines but here and there, distinctive storytellers are creating fresh funny work for web consumption. Case in point: the Fine Brothers’ latest Lost parody (embedded above) which pits Star Trek action figures against Sawyer and his Island mates.

After the jump, six more web series worth watching.

My Roommate the Cylon
Creative team Spaceshank Media drags the lofty Battletar Galactica mythology down to earth, where an apartment full of semi-dim twenty-somethings debate Cylon DNA. Smart editing eliminates the need for stunt people to fall off a three-story balcony.

In the tradition of the Lonely Island.com website, which brought Andy Samberg to the attention of Saturday Night Live, SpaceShank’s web work is getting noticed by people with money. Partner Alec McNayr says “Cylon really opened some doors for us. We’ve been pitching Comedy Central, meeting agents and talking to managers. It seems as though a web series is what a screenplay-in-tote used to be: proof of young, untested talent.”

DRAMA

LXD
Dancers as superheroes? Don’t laugh. Jon M. Chu, director of dance movies Step Up 2, uses artful cinematography and a spooky action-movie soundtrack to pump the premise: fightin’ and dancin’ are pretty much the same. The League of Extraordinary Dancers brings together “The most elite crew ever assembled” in this X-Men-meets-booty-shakers concept.

MUSIC

Rockville, CA
TV’s king of teen- and tweenty-something banter Josh Schwartz (The OC, Gossip Girl) points the beautiful people toward a dingy rock club in L.A’s groovy-hip Silver Lake neighborhood. Fast forward past the flirty repartee (codpieces, orange peels and ass-less chaps) to the band performances. Raw, ripping rock from Eagles Of Death Metal, Nico Stai, The Duke Spirit and other groups make this WB.com series rock. Final episodes launched May 12.

Spellfury
Canadian writer-director Travis Gordon throws World Of Warcraft video games, Lord of the Rings pomposity and Buffy The Vampire Slayer snark into the blender for this live-action series. Best part: The blue ogre with bloody eyes is every bit as creepy as Billy Crudup’s “Doctor Manhattan,” made for about .00001 of the cost. “We have a huge medieval tavern brawl coming up and also have a puppeteer who worked on Farscape and the Muppets who’s doing a creature for us,” he says.

Next up for Gordon: Mass Stupidity, which he describes as “Austin Powers–Meets–G.I. Joe.” Gordon speaks for many of the New Webotainment auteurs when he says, “I pretty much do this full-time. it doesn’t pay much but I love doing it.”

AND THERE’S MORE
Here’s a few worthy webotainment hubs where you might just spot the breakout hit of tomorrow.

Atom.com
Comedy Central-affiliated site includes the Fine Brothers’ social
network–mocking comedy My Profile Story. Also new:
stage-your-own cop show The Deepening and Hot Sluts!
Rated R.

Crackle.com
Sony Picture Television site, home to Xena stunt gal Zoe Bell’s Angel of Death, launches porn-star reality show Mommy XXX in June, followed in August by the fat-magician comedy series Dusty Peacock from Mall Cop comedian Kevin James.

funnyordie.com
The web’s best-known comedy site continues to score with one-offs from Paris Hilton, Jack Black and co-founder Will Ferrell.

Cardboard-headed robots do a dance beneath the Chicago el tracks in the "Kid Static" rap video.

machinima.com
This hub for sci-fi/fantasy shorts created from videogame engines plans to expand with 15 sitcom pilots from network TV veterans who’ve written for The Simpsons, Futurama, King of the Hill, Seinfeld, Married With Children, Seinfeld and Cheers.

My Damn Channel
Producer of hit series You Suck at Photoshop, the site earlier this month launched season four of dork-dating-babes comedy series Wainy Days.

nextnewnetworks.com
Former MTV creative director Herb Scandell and Spongebob Squarepants creator Fed Seibert co-founded the site, which includes The Obama Girls on its barelypolitical channel.

revision3.com
Ranting heads and DIY filmmakers post here, with instructions on how
to create exploding heads — for free.

vimeo.com
User-generated site focuses on skate and rap culture with pieces like Noah Banks’ absurdist Kid Static music video.

The WB.com
Among the dozen plus original series hosted here: Webby Award-winning comedy Children’s Hospital features Rob Corddry from The Daily Show.

AND THERE’S MORE MORE:

New web series are hitting the ‘net every day. Let us know which webisodes are cracking you up. Weigh in below with your comments and recommendations.